Hebrews 12
Jesus, the Example
“Therefore,
since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us,
let’s rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily
entangles us, and let’s run with endurance the race that is set
before us,
2 looking
only at JESUS, THE
ORIGINATOR AND PERFECTOR OF THE FAITH,
WHO FOR THE JOY SET BEFORE HIM
ENDURED THE CROSS, DESPISING THE SHAME,
and
HAS SAT DOWN AT
THE RIGHT HAND OF THE THRONE OF GOD.
3 For consider
HIM WHO has ENDURED
SUCH HOSTILITY BY SINNERS AGAINST HIMSELF, so that you will not grow
weary ]and lose
heart.
A Father’s Discipline
4 You have
not yet resisted [to the
point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;
5 and you
have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as children,
“My children, do not regard lightly the discipline of THE LORD,
Nor faint when you are punished by HIM;
6 For WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE
DISCIPLINES, and
HE PUNISHES EVERY SON
(CHILD) WHOM HE ACCEPTS.”
7 It is
for discipline that you endure; GOD deals with you as with sons;
for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
8 But if
you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you
are illegitimate children and not sons.
9 Furthermore,
we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them;
shall we not much more be subject to THE FATHER of spirits,
and live?
10 For they
disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but HE
DISCIPLINES US FOR OUR GOOD, SO THAT WE MAY SHARE IN HIS HOLINESS.
11 For
the moment, all discipline seems not to be pleasant, but painful; yet to those
who have been trained by it, afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of RIGHTEOUSNESS.
12 Therefore, strengthen
the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble,
13 and make
straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is
impaired may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
14 Pursue PEACE with all
people, and the holiness without which no one will see THE LORD.
15 See to
it that no one comes short of THE GRACE OF GOD;
that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and
by it many become defiled;
16 that there
be no sexually immoral or godless person like Esau, who
sold his own birthright for a single meal.
17 For you
know that even afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was
rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with
tears.
Contrast of Sinai and Zion
18 For you
have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a
blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind,
19 and to
the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words, which sound
was such that those who heard begged that no further word be
spoken to them.
20 For they
could not cope with the command,
‘If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.’
21 And so terrible
was the sight, that Moses said,
‘I am terrified and trembling.’
22 But you have
come to Mount Zion and to the city of THE LIVING GOD, the heavenly
Jerusalem, and to myriads of [h]angels,
23 to the
general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in
heaven, and to GOD, THE
JUDGE OF ALL, and to the spirits of the righteous
made perfect,
24 and to JESUS, THE MEDIATOR OF A NEW
COVENANT, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better
than the blood of Abel.
The Unshaken Kingdom
25 See to
it that you do not refuse HIM WHO is speaking. For if those did not
escape when they refused him who warned them on
earth, much less will we escape who turn
away from HIM who warns us from heaven.
26 And HIS
voice shook the earth then, but now HE has promised, saying,
‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the
heaven.’
27 This expression,
‘Yet once more,’ denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken,
as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Therefore,
since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let’s [show gratitude, by which we may offer
to GOD an acceptable service with reverence and awe;
29 for OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE. "
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